1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicular lamp provided with an extension reflector in a lamp body thereof, which is configured such that a lens can be removed from the lamp body without degrading the aesthetic appearance of the vehicular lamp.
2. Background Art
A vehicular lamp, such as a headlamp for a vehicle, is typically configured to dispose a bulb and a reflector as a light source within a lamp chamber, which is formed by mounting a lens on a front opening portion of a lamp body. For the configuration that the lens is mounted on the front opening portion of the lamp body, a technique that the lens is integrated with the lamp body in a manner of laser welding may be used. Alternatively, a bonding technique using seal material, such as a bonding agent, hot melt adhesive, or the like may be used. With such techniques, however, it is not possible to remove the lens from the lamp body. Thus, when the lens is damaged, it is not possible to replace only the lens, and accordingly replacing the entire lamp is required. In particular, replacing a lamp, such as a headlamp, provided with a reflector and an aiming mechanism as a whole creates rising costs. Further, it is not easy to demount the lens from the lamp body, and, as a result, this is obstacle to recycling components or parts.
Meanwhile, the following configuration is proposed in this art. That is, it is configured to ensure sealing performance by inserting packing in between the lens and the lamp body, attaching the lens to the lamp body in a manner of using an engaging mechanism. This may be favorable in view of lens replacement and recycling. However, in such a configuration, the engaging mechanism is disposed around an edge of the lens, as is corresponding to an edge of the front opening of the lamp body. Accordingly, a region of the edge appears dark or black due to the engaging mechanism. Further, such a dark region appears to expand outward, and thereby the configuration degrades the aesthetic appearance of the lamp when seen from the front. The problem regarding appearance also occurs in the conventional lamp using the seal material.
Patent Document 1 listed below proposes a technique that an adapter is bonded to an edge of a lens and then attached to the lamp body via packing. With the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, the appearance of the lamp in a front view may be improved by reducing the area bound the lens and the adapter. Further, the adapter may be easily removed from the lamp body at the bounded area in which the packing is used. Accordingly, this may provide benefits in lens replacement and recycling.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Examined Utility Model Publication 6-50887.
With the technique of Patent Document 1, in order to bond the adapter to the lens, it is necessary to form the seal groove on the bonded area, and thereby the seal groove still appears dark in the front view. In addition, it is difficult to reduce this dark region, the technique has limits with respect to the improvement of the appearance in the front view. Moreover, the adapter is provided separately from the lamp body. Thus, the conventional lamp, which is provided with an extension reflector for avoiding exposing a gap between an inner surface of the lamp body and a reflector to sight through the lens, requires the adaptor, as is an independent part, in addition to essential parts of the lamp. Accordingly, the number of parts of the lamp increases, and thereby becomes an obstacle to cost reduction. Further, another gap is created between the extension reflector and the adapter, and, accordingly, the dark region appears to further extend.